A day at the Canada Science and Technology Museum

The Canada Science and Technology museum is very known in the town of Ottawa Canada. Having opened in 1967 people who are in their 20’s like me have not only grown up going to this museum but out parent’s have as well. Needless to say it is pretty well known, not unlike most of Ottawa’s museums.

Unfortunately the museum had a nasty case of mould and it was forced to shut down. The museum seeing the extent of the mould problem decided to update the whole museum at the same time. It was closed for three years where it was pushed to the back of my mind as life went on. But now it is once again recently open, so of course I needed to check it out! It was one of favourite museums as a child that and the kids section of the Museum of civilization (Now known as the museum of Canadian History) so I couldn’t wait to see what the new museum looked like, especially since it was advertised that the only two things that where the same was the crazy kitchen and the antique trains (don’t worry I will expand on that below).

When I got there I was already loving the exterior. They have some cool projections and sound effects on the side of the building.

Inside it’s drastically different but also very nice. There is so much to see it’s almost hard to know where to start. When I went it was very busy, a long line up was almost to the doors. (see my Youtube video which will be on the bottom of the page) When I got ot the front I saw the prices and my wallet cried a bit. It’s 17 dollars for an adult which isn’t too bad but as a student it’s a a bit hard to afford. However did they have student prices, membership prices and a family deal all worth while. On top of that my sister who is a teacher got in for free after showing her teacher’s card. So there is definitely ways to save money on the entrance fee.

The first thing we went to see was some old cars and modes of transportation. All around there was a million other things to look at. You could easily spend a whole day there with lot’s of activities for young children and adults alike. We spent 2 and a half hours but like I said we could have spent more time.

So not to make this an endless post I will highlight some favorite parts of the museum. Firstly the Crazy Kitchen. This is one of the two original exhibits. For those who have never heard of it (which is basically anyone outside of Ottawa) it’s an old style kitchen that looks like it’s straight but it’s actually on a 12 degree slant. As soon as you step in it makes a cool effect. I used to spend a lot of time in there as a child and while they literally kept it exactly the same as a 21 year old I got too dizzy to even walk in. So embarrassing but I am not the only one as they have a huge poster warning people of that possibility outside the crazy kitchen.

The next part to highlight was the trains. It also is pretty much unchanged except they added some more features around it. You can take some awesome selfies outside the trains and go inside one of the trains as well. There isn’t much to see except the engine rooms. For some reason my childhood memories remembered it to have more than that but I might be imagining things.

We also caught the pyro show. There was zero seats and we had to stand at the back. The girl who was doing the show announced it was her first show and she did a really good job for her first solo show. It is of course very geared towards children and the parts where she explained things I zoned out a bit but it’s definitely worth it as an adult to to see someone playing with fire quite literally. She had three main experiments which were all interesting to see. ( see my Youtube video at the end of the post)

A last example I will give is the energy use section. They had a bunch of light up images which showed how water and or electricity household items used. It was made in a way that you had to press a button to see the answer and kids where having a blast trying to guess. It’s such a good way to teach young and old how our consumption of daily products and our choices in keeping a tap on or flushing multiple times or even starting a dishwasher for one dish effects energy consumption and in return our planet, climate change and even more.

Here are some extra honorable mentions, the Tiny house demo (I am honestly seriously considering that as my first house), the cool hands on activities like the sound exhibit where they had this awesome sound proof cube (see video below) and the concussion visual demonstration (see video).

This is of course a Powered Crowd post so I will now be giving it my Powered Crowd Rating.

As far as addressing some important issues such as climate change, the importance of being safe (in science and sports and more), supporting women in sciences and stem etc. I would give it a 3.5-4 out of 5 star rating. I of course didn’t have time to fully see the whole museum or read everything in detail since I was there with my younger cousins and only stayed 2:30 hours so this rating is affected by that. I did however see women doing science activities such as the show and exhibits talking of important issues that our world face. I would have just liked to see a bit more of it. Maybe a women in science exhibit or a lesser know science and technology hero’s exhibit where we could see some diversity which was lacking from what I saw.

Accessibility: There was not really any stairs leading to exhibit (exception of the trains and the show viewing space) I also saw some ramps(crazy kitchen, going down to the train area etc..). Everything seemed accessible for the most part as far I could see. Rating 4 out of 5 stars. *Disclaimer I do not have a physical disability, if you do and want to contribute to this rating let me know!

Youtube Video to come.

So that’s it for this post today! What is your favorite museum as a child? Let me know in the comments!

I hope you enjoyed until next time be part of a Powered Crowd for positive change!